MICHIGAN -- Never a problem before, a pit bull attacked a 13-year-old Riverdale boy, sending him to the hospital for facial surgery.
The attack happened Sunday and the boy is now at home recovering “and doing very well,” said Tom Clark, Gratiot Animal Control director.
The boy had gone to his friend’s home, where the pit bull, 8, lived. The boy knew the dog very well and was never bitten before, Clark said.
“He’d been in and out of that house a thousand times,” Clark said. “He’d been around the dog for several years and he never tried to bite him before.”
But on that day, the dog suddenly lunged at the boy, biting his face. He was taken to Covenant Hospital in Grand Rapids where he had surgery on his nose and lips.
The owner of the dog - the boy’s friend’s dad - was on or around the porch at the time of the incident and saw what happened. The owner told Clark that the boy did nothing to provoke the dog.
Clark said the owners surrendered the dog to be put down. Because they did so willingly, the courts were not involved.
The dog had never attacked anyone else, Clark said, and in fact, when brought to the animal control office, “He wasn’t threatening or aggressive.”
After he was euthanized, the dog was tested for rabies and the test came back negative, Clark said.
(The Morning Sun - June 7, 2012)
